2 steps forward . . .

. . . one step back. No worries, though. I feel good about how it's going lately.

The last couple days I've come back in the afternoon and done some work outside of my usual time. Got a head start on Chapter 7 yesterday. This morning when I went to work on it, a problem with the last couple chapters that has been nagging at me was more apparent, and I decided not to ignore it. I ended up going back to Chapter 6, which I had declared done already, and put a patch in there. That helped improve the situation a lot on the issue that was bothering me--the fact that we never really see any consequence to a major development in Chapter 5.

Once that was done, I couldn't turn my energy to Chapter 7 so easily, so it amounted to just an hour of work this morning. I've identified the spot where I can do some development work to show more of the ripple effects of Chapter 5. I don't know exactly what that's going to be be yet, but I'll stew on it over the weekend and start with that Monday. Then on to the end of Chapter 7 which will need to be totally rewritten.

So, with luck, Chapter 7 will be done next Wednesday. If Chapter 8 goes the same way, then I'll be done with Part 1 with a couple weeks to spare before my big trip. I could keep plowing ahead, but at this moment I'm thinking I should use that couple weeks to do some outlining/brainstorming/planning work for Part 2 so I can be as productive as possible during my trip.